Confused on some choices built into the game.

[MacabreDerek 2]

So I will admit I am no pro at DayZ, but there have been a few things bothering me about the game that I am having a hard time understanding. Two primarily come to mind, but I am sure I'll have a couple more by the time this thread is done.

The first one is regarding the crossbow. Having done my share of crossbow hunting, I have never encountered a crossbow to be completely lacking in any form of scope. While this normally wouldn't be an issue in a game that typically has a set of artifical crosshairs to compensate, the crossbow in DayZ has no such aiming device. It is my primary weapon of choice, but I often find I am forced to use it at uncomfortably close distances, which I guess could be a reason, but it seems like an artifical defect of choosing the weapon over a rifle as a primary firearm. I am often losing bolts because I am firing at targets at makarov range due to the odd height that the arrow flies in relation to the visuals you get aiming. In something trying to be a simulator, I can not think of a single bow hunter who has used a crossbow without some manner of sights on it, nor have I run into anyone owning such a weapon.

On a side note about the crossbow, why is it you have to hunt for the bolts in a body you shot? Would it not be more practical to simply have the visual of the arrow in the body but have it come up in the target's gear when you loot the body?

The second thing comes down to the respawn removal. I do not understand why they removed it, but as someone who plays with a small group, it is often annoying to have us spawn (With some degree of concerning consistancy) on opposing ends of the map. I can understand that you're gonna run into alot of people trying to spawn in the two main hubs along the coast, and much like us, restarting until you end up in a prefered general area, however, there is little stopping us from doing that now, except that now we're wasting 5-10 minutes going into a town to get killed to respawn. It was annoying enough that we had to keep respawning until we were at least able to get into our group in a half hour, but now it's taking most of our time to get together, usually in frustraiting fassion, before we even start really playing. This is a complete waste of a players time, and if there is something I do find inexcusable, is purposely wasting a players time. I understand that there is no party-spawn system, but is there any practical reason to punish players who do not have hours upon hours of simply setting up the ability to work together? It's bad enough I can lose progress due to a server hack suddenly throwing us into a deathmatch arena mid-game, but suddenly through no fault of our own, we're now scattered to the wind.

Am I out of line with this train of thought? DayZ provides one of the more interesting Zombie Apocalypse experiences avalible, but is there a reason for these choices in the development?

[Guest]

Respawning was disabled because kids said that it wasn't realistic.

Now, you when you spawn to Kamenka you have to run to the lighthouse and jump off.

[SmashT 10907]

The mod is in alpha, the respawn button is not finalised, Rocket said he also wants to add in a way for friends to spawn together at the same location.

The crossbow sounds like something that would be very low priority.

Edited August 4, 2012 by smasht_AU

[daspope 146]

Respawning was disabled because kids said that it wasn't realistic.

Now, you when you spawn to Kamenka you have to run to the lighthouse and jump off.

In a machinima interview he said respawn (suicide) was disabled to prevent the game from getting on CNN with bad press saying you can kill yourself.

[MacabreDerek 2]

Respawning was disabled because kids said that it wasn't realistic.

Now, you when you spawn to Kamenka you have to run to the lighthouse and jump off.

There is only so much realisim you can put into a game before it turns into an issue. I am assuming that the devs have a bit more common sense than what is being shown in the product. If we were to take the idea of a realistic zombie sim, then your death should include an uninstiliation of the dayz mod, along with a banning from re-downloading and applying it, and total server ban. It also starts throwing away numbers in the average life-span that is shown so frequently. Let's be honest, if you simply write some code to say 'if this character is dead in 2 minutes after spawn, do not add to the calculations for average life.

In a machinima interview he said respawn (suicide) was disabled to prevent the game from getting on CNN with bad press saying you can kill yourself.

That... has to be the dumbest thing I've heard. The worst part is, I believe it. But bad press is going to happen, catering to a public view that is entirely ignorant and in the end does not influence your product by far, while hamstringing your potential player base, just seems like a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

[SmashT 10907]

In a machinima interview he said respawn (suicide) was disabled to prevent the game from getting on CNN with bad press saying you can kill yourself.

No, he said he wants to re-implement something similar to "suicide" but had concerns calling it that for that reason, he didn't say that's why it was removed

Edited August 4, 2012 by smasht_AU

[MacabreDerek 2]

The mod is in alpha, the respawn button is not finalised, Rocket said he also wants to add in a way for friends to spawn together at the same location.

The crossbow sounds like something that would be very low priority.

I am glad to hear that. And as for the crossbow, I can understand it's low priority, I am still however curious as to why it is as it is, seeing how little time it would take to put a UI crosshair when aiming down scope. Seems like a quick fix that could be done in about 15 minutes with some code, but then again, I havent reversed engineered the mod, so I can only hope they look at it again down the line.

No, he said he wants to re-implement something similar to suicide but had concerns calling it that for that reason, he didn't say that's why it was removed

Thank you for clearing that up. Load off my mind.